RAMA राम : THE TEACHINGS | IN WOODS OF GOD REALIZATION | IWGR | I COME , BLAZING LIGHT ! & THE SHADOWS MUST FLEE . | I am determined to thunder out in your bosom my GODhead , your GODhead , and proclaim it through every deed and movement . | Have you a doubt as to your own Divine Self ? You had better a bullet in your heart than a doubt there . Does your heart fail you ? Pluck it out and cast it from you . Dare to laugh and launch into the Truth . Are you afraid ? Afraid of what ? Of GOD ? Nonsense : Of humans ? Cowardice : Of the Elements ? Dare them : Of yourself ? Know Thyself ; Say I am GOD . RAMA TRUTH

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Draw a diagram for your use and place on this diagram a list of the ordinary sins and shortcomings .

This table having been traced , you take the day of the week , perhaps on that day you have suffered from greed or grief ; you then place the mark ( x ) directly under the column headed greed or grief , along the line of the date and so on .

By keeping this private diary you can bring before you your shortcomings and be brought face to face with your weaknesses .

Rama does not recommend that these marks be kept on the diagram . Today you yield to some shortcoming ; be true to yourselves and put down the asterisk mark today .

Next day in the morning or at any time convenient to you , close the door , sit down all alone and open the chart before you and here you see that you yielded to greed or grief or whatever it may be ; then begin lecturing to yourself .

We in this country have too many lectures from others . Let all the great lecturers of the age come , let Christ or GOD ITSELF come and lecture , but lectures from others will be of no avail unless you are prepared to lecture to yourself .

One alone can raise oneself or make progress who lectures to oneself .

You know that you yielded to grief . Try and diagnose and prognose this feeling . Why were you overpowered by grief ? Find out the cause and then find a remedy for it .

You may at that time read an instructive book , say Bhagavad-Gita or the Bible , or Emerson's works , or any books which may tend to lift you from the plane of grief and with their aid and the aid of your own lectures , reflections , meditations , try to drive out this feeling from you forever .

If you feel convinced at that time that you have conquered and that you will not lose yourself again , no matter what may befall you , when you are assured you have trampled it under your feet , that you have gained the victory , then erase the asterisk mark .

You are free then . Why condemn yourself for the past ? Let the dead past bury its dead .

Take up these faults one by one , find the cause and the remedy for each , diagnose and prognose each one , lecture to yourself , but before such diagnosis and prognosis is done in this class , each one of you must lecture to yourself .

Each one will have to do the work for oneself . Sit down and meditate upon that which you suffer from , and while meditating chant or sing OM .

While the lips are chanting , while the voice hums this sacred syllable , while you are firm in your resolutions , the infinite blessings celestial are on you . You will be strengthened from within . These are some of the crested heads of the dragon which infested the lake of your minds . Crush them out one by one .

There is one common cause for all shortcomings , one common basis , root of all these evils , and that is Ignorance — Ignorance in all its shapes , especially Ignorance of the Real Self , Ignorance of the true Atman .

People identify themselves with the body , accumulate all sorts of things around it and want to have pleasures from without . They are identified with the body and are liable to be grieved or afflicted .

Rise above the body . Feel and realize that you are the Infinite , the Supreme Self , and how can you be affected by passion or greed ?

In the practice of yoga , in the understanding of vairagya , in self-control which is yoga , one should not be too enthusiastic . Over-enthusiasm is bad because it is mostly emotional , coupled with a kind of will-force but bereft of understanding , which creates a conflict psychologically and , consequently , even socially .

It is better that a student takes note of all desires .

" Have I a desire ? " It is no use saying , " I have no desire " .

If we have really no desires it is okay — very good , and so much the better — but we should be sure that we have no desires .

< : RAMA : > used to make a list of desires , used to go into a forest with a notebook or a diary and write ,

" How many desires have I got ? One , two , three , four , five , six , seven , eight , nine , ten ."

Every day , there would be checking ,

" How many have I finished ? Or are they all still there ? "

To the extent of the diminution of desires , we are free in this world ; and to the extent of the presence of these desires , we are bound in this world . Our bondage or freedom can be judged from the number of desires that are unfulfilled or fulfilled . If we have fulfilled all the desires and have no desires left , then we are free . But if we have not fulfilled our desires , if they are still there harassing us from inside , we are bound souls .

TPY | EYSP | PT2 | CH52 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Inasmuch as our external relationships — which constitute the outward form of the relative self — have become part and parcel of our experience , they are inseparable from our consciousness . It requires a careful peeling out of these layers of self by very intelligent means .

The lowest attachment , or the least of attachments , should be tackled first . The intense attachments should not be tackled in the beginning . We have many types of attachment — there may be fifty , sixty , a hundred — but all of them are not of the same intensity .

There are certain vital spots in us which cannot be touched . They are very vehement , and it is better not to touch them in the beginning . But there are some milder aspects which can be tackled first , and the gradation of these attachments should be understood properly .

How many attachments are there , and how many affections ? What are the loves that are harassing the mind and causing agony ?

Make a list of them privately in your own diary , if you like .

They say < : RAMA : > used to do that — would make a list of all the desires and find out how many of them had been fulfilled :

" What is the condition ? Where am I standing ? " — and so on .

This is a kind of spiritual diary that you can create for yourself :

" How many loves are there which are troubling me ? How many things do I like in this world ? "

The percentage of attachment that you have towards these things also has to be properly understood . What is the percentage of love for " A " , " B " , " C " , " D " , etc ?

In a gradational order , tabulate the objects of sense or the conceptual objects , whatever they be , and note the degree of attachment involved in every particular case .

Take the least one , the simplest , as the first .

If you have a desire to sleep on a Dunlop cushion — well , you may think over this matter .

" Is a Dunlop cushion very necessary ? I can have a cotton mattress instead . "

This is not a very serious attachment , though it is an attachment . There are well-to-do aristocrats who may like to sleep on Dunlop beds , Dunlop pillows , have air-conditioning , and so on . These are desires , but they are not so vehement . There are other desires which cannot be touched immediately , and they have to be tackled later on .

By a very dispassionate and unattached attitude , one can diminish one's relationships with things which are really not essential for one's comfortable existence .

Let us assume that a comfortable existence is a necessity ; even that comfortable life can be led without these luxuries .

How many wristwatches have you got ? How many coats ? How many rooms are you occupying ? How much land have you ? How many acres ? — and so on .

CH UP | CHAP 4 | SECT 12 | CH52 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

We are told that < : RAMA : > had a peculiar technique for self-control , and used to make a list of all the desires .

It was no joke . It was an honest investigation into the mind .

To some extent we can know what our desires are . Go to a secluded place , or sit in your own room , or sit behind a temple or in a forest and think what your desires are .

You should not say , " I have no desires " . Nor can you say , " I do not know anything " .

You do know something , because it is the persistent thoughts in the mind that are your desires . When you are free from the distractions of the daily functions of life , your real desires will manifest themselves . These desires have to be dealt with in a proper manner . That is the discipline called for . . .

The subject of tonight's discourse is very abstruse , very difficult . Only those will be able to follow it thoroughly who are already somewhat acquainted with Philosophy . To Rama it makes no difference whether all of you go away fatigued and disgusted , or the whole world comes to listen .

If you are given a mathematical problem and are asked to draw a conclusion , all the premises , the whole hypothesis you will have to consider . How can you solve a problem correctly when you take up only a part of the data ?

Vedanta requires you to get rid of this lower nature , this ignorance . Burn this ignorance , burn this lower egoism , burn this lower selfish nature which makes a hell of your body and let in the fire of knowledge .

Rama has written in simple language , the ordinary thoughts and ideas that satisfy the mind and show the Divine Vision to the writer both within and without . The whole world shining like the diamond is becoming the Divine Ocean .

IWGR | TOC | VOL I | Happiness Within | Expansion Of Self | The Infinite In The Finite | The Sun Of Self On The Wall Of Mind | The Real Self | Sin : Its Relation To Atman | Prognosis & Diagnosis Of Sin

" Hammer on ! hammer on ! " is the first principle of success . Without work you can never succeed . A lazy person is bound to perish in the " struggle for existence " , one cannot live , one must die .

Rise to the GOD-Consciousness to such a degree that for you your past relations may become a complete blank . . . Your relation to the world should become the relation of GOD to the world ; an entire change .

From one point of view , mind and intellect are not Brahman ; but on the other hand , mind and intellect are nothing else but Brahman , even the body is nothing else but Brahman , and Everything in the world is nothing else but Brahman .

Can you transfer your consciousness ? Put it here , your consciousness should sit here . Can it sit here ? Now it is inside your body . It is operating through the body and you are seeing through the aperture of your eyes and then perceiving a person like me here .

Immanuel Kant is said to have been woken up by Hume from " dogmatic slumber " and brought about a " Copernican revolution " in the field of philosophy . In Kant we begin to reap the ripe fruits of philosophy , for it is here that it shows signs of its having reached maturity and full development .

SWAMI-KRISHNANANDA.ORGWelcome to the website of Swami Krishnananda . Here you will find eBooks and articles as well as audios and videos on yoga , meditation , philosophy , scriptural texts and related subjects .

PRABODHASUDHAKARA | THE NECTAR OCEAN OF ENLIGHTENMENT | PART 2 | DEVOTION | SRI ADI SANKARACARYA | TRANSLATION & BHASYA BY SAMVID | PSNOE SERIES || The devotional fervour which the author exhibits in the four concluding sections of this work would appear to be in sharp contrast with the author's relentless pursuit of truth through rational enquiry , found in the earlier sections .

I am composing the Atmabodha , or Self-Knowledge , to serve the needs of those who have been purified through the practice of austerities, and who are peaceful in heart , free from cravings , and desirous of Liberation .

One who has one's mind Self-absorbed through Yoga , and who has the vision of sameness everywhere , sees this Self existing in everything , and everything in one's Self . | One who sees Me in everything , and sees all things in Me — I do not go out of one's vision , and one also is not lost to My vision .

Some minds with too much self reliance in themselves , and without considering the true nature of things , give them different forms and colours , according to their own conceptions and opinions , though far from truth .

VOL 1 | BOOK II | CHAP XVII | VERSE 10 | ON THE CONTENTS OF THE WORK | IT CONTAINS SIX BOOKS all fraught with sentences full of reason , and each distinct from the other in its import . It has many verses containing chosen examples on all subjects .

DANGEROUS HABIT OF CONSTANT SELF JUSTIFICATION | To go on claiming this so-called freedom , which is no more than a subjection to certain ignorant cosmic forces , is to indulge in a blind contradiction and to claim the right to lead a double life

Imagination in the mind always exaggerates . Exaggeration is a modification of lie . Aspirants should not exaggerate . They should utter words with mathematical and scientific precision . An aspirant is asked to give up company and observe Mouna .

MahaBhava is a Divine Ecstasy . It shakes the body and mind to their very foundation . It is like a huge elephant entering a small hut . The house shakes to its foundation . Perhaps it falls to pieces .

Athato bhaktim vyakhyasyamah | 1. Now , therefore , we shall teach Bhakti , or the Religion of Divine Love . 2. Now , therefore , I will try to explain the process of devotional service . 3. Now , therefore , the doctrine of devotion we shall expound .

Rama has written in simple language , the ordinary thoughts and ideas that satisfy the mind and show the Divine Vision to the writer both within and without . The whole world shining like the diamond is becoming the Divine Ocean .

OM! In Humans , The Past exists only in memory , which is retention , replaying , reconfiguration of stories , fantasies , fiction ; The Future is expectation and fantasy : These thoughts play in The Present , creating a false sense of continuity of personality — Nothing but DREAMING it is .|| SSSV 32.3 ||